Bankroll the haters and the hated will think twice about taking your money.

The National Conference on LGBT Equality is in town this week at the Minneapolis Hilton, running a series of lectures and workshops for equality activists.

All the big local corporations have hopped on board as sponsors: Best Buy, General Mills, Xcel Energy, Ameriprise Financial, Dorsey and Whitney... you know, pretty much everyone. Oh yeah: except Target. Why not?

As it turns out, it's not because Target isn't interested. It's because the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which runs the Creating Change conference, isn't really sure how cozy they want to be with the national retail giant in the wake of its contentious donations to MN Forward this year.

"We decided right now was not the right time for us to be partners," said Russell Roybal, deputy executive at the Task Force. "There's been some organized opposition to Target in the wake of their MN Forward donations, and we've been talking with them about that."

Roybal took pains to stress that the Task Force is still open to cooperating with Target in the future, and that their current impasse should not obscure the retailer's otherwise good track record.

"We recognize that Target has been a model employer of LGBT people for a long time, and we don't want to negate everything that they've done," Roybal said. "We'll get through this rough patch."

HA,HA! Perhaps the queers should not have attacked Target last fall for giving money to Tom Emmer's campaign. I wonder if Target will sponsor the Pride Festival this year. Notice to all the twisted souls out there; bit your tongue and hope Target puts on your nationally famous (or should I say fabulous) event. Doesn’t the Dayton family still own a 49% share in Target Corp?